Sometimes Baking Is Good for the Soul
by farawisa
Summary: Clint stress bakes. mentions of Clint/Phil OneShot


Prompt fill stress baking

cc-feelsmeme . livejournal 1635 .html ? thread = 2403#t2403

Either Phil or Clint stress bakes. The baked goods that just appear in the SHIELD break-room are always the best but no one knows who made them. Cue investigation.

. o 0 o .

It had all started a long time before Clint had moved in with Phil. When he had first been hired for SHIELD, they had made sure that he had a flat and clothes and three meals a day and it had been so alien to Clint that he had needed an outlet. He had used the range a lot of times but there were only so many hours he could spent there without doing more harm than good to himself. Missions were good, because there was not that much time to think about the alien concept of someone caring about him. And he knew that Phil Coulson and also Nick Fury cared about him.

It was also then that for the first time in his life he had more money than he knew what to do with. He didn't even really need to buy groceries. It was a novelty for him because even with his parents, he had gone hungry a lot of times, and the circus wasn't any better. In fact it was a lot worse.

So after a while he had grown a bit tired from the reoccurring dishes in the canteen at SHIELD and had started to buy his own groceries and started to cook for himself. He felt that it was relaxing, that it took his mind off things. After a while he tried some baking and that was even more relaxing, so he guessed that no one could blame him if, after the third mission in a row had ended with agents hurt, with Phil hurt, he started to bake to take his mind off the situation since he wasn't allowed into medical to visit one of his only two friends.

When he came down from his haze, he looked around himself to see every available surface in his small kitchen filled with all kinds of baked goods. There were cakes and cookies and pastries and…were that pretzels back there? He sighed dejectedly. What was he supposed to do with all that stuff?

After a moment's hesitation he decided that the break room was a good place to store goods. It wasn't like he would be able to eat all this and the other agents were always hungry. Maybe they would like his stuff.

A few trips up and down the ventilation shafts later and his kitchen was nearly bakery product free. He had only kept a few things for himself.

Clint had no idea that he triggered a base-wide alarm when the younger recruits came in the next morning and found the baked goods. They notified their superiors, since they were wary where the food had come from. It was declared clean by the scientists however as they tested it. After that no one made a fuss when something showed up in one of the break rooms.

There were, however, investigations as to who was the baker since more than one agent wanted to thank them or ask them if there was a way that one could order some of the baked goods. After about a year, each and every agent in SHIELD looked forward to the days when new bakery products would show up, it would be mostly Mondays, but sometimes they would also turn up under the week. No one ever caught the baker.

That means no one caught him while Clint got the stuff into the break rooms. It drove security batshit crazy and Clint thought it hilarious. There was one time after an op however, after he and Phil had gotten together and had found Nat and brought her back, that it got so bad that Clint didn't even register in which kitchen he was until he heard a sharp indrawn breath behind him. Normally he did this in his own kitchen, but it seemed like he was in Phil's this time and the man was standing in the doorway eyes wide.

"I knew it," he said. "Nick owes me $50."

And that was that. There was no other comment for which Clint was grateful. Phil helped him get the stuff down into the break room this time and every time after this, and the only change in routine was that from then on Clint always used Phil's kitchen, a few more articles stayed in the flat and a batch of chocolate chip cookies always got delivered directly to the director. And since getting together with Phil, his stress got reduced by a lot so that it nearly always stayed with Monday delivery of goodies.

. o 0 o .

When they moved into the Avengers tower, Clint stress levels rose to dangerous heights. Never in his life had he felt so anxious so often and no amount of Phil by his side could help that.

The moment the fight had been over, Nick had taken both him and Nat to medical to get checked out and to show them that Phil was still alive Clint couldn't have been happier and Nick had made sure that the nurses and doctors had a standing order to let both him and Nat to Coulson whenever they wanted.

So now that he was living with earth's mightiest heroes, Clint felt inadequate a lot of times and most of the time the others didn't even notice that they were making him uncomfortable.

The baking sprees became more and more often, but the good thing was that Tony paid for all the groceries they needed and living together with a man with a sweet tooth a mile wide, a supersoldier and a doctor with amazing metabolisms and a demigod that could eat his weight in baked goods, nothing they didn't got to safety first stayed in the kitchen for long. And Phil still helped him to cover up just who exactly the baker was.

Yep, mostly life was good.

-FIN-

Tell me, what you think, please!


End file.
